Can Knockdown - Yes, we can!

Ah, fun fairs—you gotta love ‘em. But how to go about creating a fun fair atmosphere on one’s Android phone or tablet? Finding music that’s reminiscent of fun fairs is doable, whereas candy floss (unless your sweet tooth can be sated by a virtual cloud of candy floss) is a bit more of a challenge. However, one carnival classic really is available for Android: Can Knockdown! Just how much fun can be had virtually tossing balls at cans on your Android phones? Find out in today’s test review!

I’m just going to come right out and say it: I love fun fairs. It doesn’t matter which city or whether it’s a tiny affair or a huge event à la Oktoberfest in Munich, I love the vibe and the good times. Perhaps that’s why I was excited about an Android app that promises to bring some of the fun fair atmosphere to my phone/tablet. I’ve been playing Can Knockdown on my Galaxy Tab for a while now, and am happy to introduce it to you all today.

Most of you will be familiar with the gameplay. A bunch of aluminum cans are stacked on a plank of wood, and the challenge is to knock them down by throwing a ball at them. In Can Knockdown the player starts off with five balls. After each round – i.e. after a stack of cans has been knocked down – the player is awarded a new ball. If you manage to knock down a pile using only ball your score will be doubled, and if you are awarded one point for each can that goes down. If you need only one ball to knock down the entire lot your score will be doubled in the next round, and if you repeat the same feat again your score is tripled in the following round, etc.

Can Knockdown comes with a variety of game modes. The scenery and can pile will vary accordingly. ‘Play’’s design is very true to a traditional fun fair aesthetic, right down to the sound effects. ‘Winter Play’ is set in a lovely, snowy landscape complete with snowflkaes and the sound of wintry wind. The gameplay itself doesn’t change, only the look of the settings varies. You get two ‘extra’ cans in both modes: if you manage to hit the green can you are awarded an extra ball, and the red one explodes if you hit it.

The gameplay is good fun and varied thanks to the app’s design and soundtrack. Can Knockdown’s string suit is clearly its brilliant graphics, but it comes with a price, as the game is over 14MB large. I think it’s worth it, however, especially seeing as the game does support App2SD. The physics engine is nothing to sneeze at either: it is quite realistic most of the time.

Bottom line:Can Knockdown is nice to look at and lots of fun to play. If you’re the type of player who likes to strive for impressive highscores you might wind up spending quite a bit of time playing this game. That being said, it isn’t the type of game that you can really spend hours on. I like to play every now and then, and for a limited amount of time (i.e. a few minutes here and there), quite simply because the game isn’t diversified enough to capture my attention for longer than that. Still, it’s a good game to have and I enjoy it.

Screen & Controls

The fun fair shack and winter landscape are both really nicely done, and the cans’ animation is three dimensional. The physics engine and design are both good. Controls are easy as pie: first you pull the ball to the left or right to target the pile f cans, and then shoot it by sliding your finger across the screen. It’s pretty easy getting the hang of Can Knockdown and doesn’t take more than a few tries.

Speed & Stability

I didn’t experience any issues with the app’s stability. Please keep in mind that Can Knockdown calls for a rather efficient device. It runs smoothly on the Galaxy Tab, but I can’t imagine it would perform as well on an HTC Wildfire.

Price/Performance Ratio

Can Knockdown can be downloaded free of charge from the AndroidPIT App Center or the Android Market. There are ads when the app gets started up.